


Sixteen: a distant seventeen

by hollsteinhasruinedme



Series: The Sixteen [1]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 10:57:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4098412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollsteinhasruinedme/pseuds/hollsteinhasruinedme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura knows she should make better decisions than to sneak out at midnight. But how could she say no when she knew Carmilla was going to be there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sixteen: a distant seventeen

**Author's Note:**

> sigh... this is something that actually happened to me, but uh... minus the assaulting the cop part but, sometimes a girl's gotta manufacture her own excitement, y'know?

Okay.

 

So this is a bad idea.

 

I know that.

 

But Kirsch said Carmilla was already there waiting. I mean, I can’t just bail now, right?

 

Right?

 

Oh god, I’m gonna throw up, I know it.

 

My phone beeps and I jump, picking it up and opening the message. It’s from Kirsch.

 

_hey lil nerd, im lvng now so like.. gimme 3 mins to get thr. be rdy._

 

I would be be texting him back, making fun of his terrible grammar, but I’m too busy trying to _not_ empty the contents of my stomach on the floor in my room.

 

But… being manipulated into sneaking out, going to a different city and breaking into an abandoned school? How does one not throw up over that? Especially if it’s your first time.

 

Kirsch said everything would be alright though, and I trust him. Plus… Carmilla’s gonna be there. How could I not go now?

 

_hey im otsde hrry up_

 

I take a deep breath, shoulder my backpack and open the door to my room. I peek down the down the hall and make a right in the opposite direction of my Dad’s room. I open his locked office door using a knife (yeah, I know awesome, right?) and make my way out the back door. Kirsch is parked a little further away from my house in the big parking lot. I grip my backpack a little bit tighter and bolt for his truck, worrying that my Dad already knows what I’m doing.

 

I open his door, throw my backpack and myself before slamming the door. My backpack must have hit him in the face because he’s glaring at me. “What? I’m nervous!”

 

He rolls his eyes but puts a smile on his face. “You don’t need to be.”

 

I tap on the steering wheel of his truck. “Then _drive_.”

 

He mutters something before backing up and heading to the main road a different way. “You know we’re only going like… eleven minutes away from your house, right?”

 

And I guess I must have been shaking my leg because he puts a hand on it. I sigh. “Yeah… I know, I just… I’ve never snuck out before unless it’s for myself like… to take a walk or something.”

 

He shakes his head. “You’re such a weirdo.”

 

And then proceeds to put his Taylor Swift CD in.

 

Which, actually doesn’t make him weird because come on, who doesn’t love Taylor Swift?

 

We listen to _All You Had to Do Was Stay_ and _Bad Blood_ on the way to the school and thank God for T Swift because it finally helped me calm down. “ _Bad Blood_ still your favorite song?”

 

I punch him lightly on the shoulder and laugh. “Shut up.”

 

“You know, I’m kind of freaked out too.”

 

I turn to him. “Really?”

 

He shrugs, taking a left at a stop sign. “Yeah, I mean… no one wants to get caught sneaking out of their house.”

 

Example number 1: me.

 

“Just lighten up, Laura. You’ll be fine.”

 

I sigh and nod. He’s probably right.

 

Besides, Carm said she’s done this like twice before and didn’t get caught. So, honestly we really should be fine. Kirsch pulls out his phone and hands it to me.

 

“Call her because I can’t find the school.”

 

I take the phone, unlock it because, lets be honest _1 2 3 4_ isn’t the hardest pass code to crack, and scroll through his contacts. “Um… is she ‘angry nerd’ with that weird looking devil head thing?”

 

He laughs. “That’s her.”

 

I chuckle and hit the call button, putting the phone up to my ear.

 

I wait for a second until I hear rustling. “Hello?”

 

“Jesus, where the hell are you guys? I’ve been standing outside here looking like some kind of mental hobo who wants to kidnap small children!” she whisper-yells. I laugh.

 

I’ve been friends with Carmilla for two years and I’ve never heard her sound so exasperated. It was kind of funny. “Um… okay sorry, we’re kind of lost.” I glance around at the streets. “We’re on Evergreen and Wallgate right now.”

 

She clicks her tongue. “Okay good! Stay there for a second, let me figure this out, cupcake.”

 

I nod, forgetting she can’t see me before replying. “Okay.”

 

Her voice crackles back through. “Turn left, go away from University Avenue.”

 

“Turn left,” I told him, following her instructions. We end up at another cross street and a stop sign. “Uh… we’re at a stop sign now, corner of Evergreen and… wait -”

 

“Honk,” she interrupts. “Just do it, honk.”

 

“Honk,” I tell him. He gives me a weird look and I shrug. He honks and her voice comes back through again.

 

“Yeah, okay, I hear you. Turn left.”

 

We turn left and as we come around the corner of some houses. the school comes in to sight. I gulp because… it really is abandoned. It’s boarded up and most of the windows that are left are shattered.

 

It also didn’t help that it was one in the morning.

 

Yeah, no. That made it look twenty times more creepy. But watching Carmilla walk up to the car and lean her head against the window made everything that twenty times better.

 

She knocked on the window. “You gonna open the door or what, cutie? We don’t have all night.”

 

I clear my throat and hop out, shouldering my backpack.

 

Okay, so… I have a small crush on her, but who cares, right?

 

(I do.)

 

We all lean against the car while Kirsch goes through his backpack, pulling out a bottle of Smirnoff and… is that _cookie flavored?_

 

I love cookies. Like… it disturbs Kirsch and Carmilla so much that they’ve stopped buying them for me. He tosses the bottle to her and she puts it in her backpack. She then tosses him a bag and… oh god I should have known.

 

They didn’t come here just to break into the school. They came here to get… fricked up.

 

Yeah, I said fricked. Don’t judge.

 

“Trying not to swear in your head again, cupcake?” Carmilla asks, slipping her hand into my, now, incredibly sweaty one.

 

Oh my god.

 

We’re holding _freaking hands_. “Um, lil nerd… you okay? You look like you might faint.”

 

Carmilla laughs and I nearly do faint because holy crap is that the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard in my life. “It’s the effect I have on all girls, beefcake. You should know that by now.”

 

He stuck his tongue out at her. “Whatever, angry nerd.”

 

I laugh and she lets go of my hand.

 

I frown.

 

“Punishment must be brought upon the instigator, sweetheart,” she says with a smirk.

 

I scoff. “Punishment my ass,” I mutter.

 

I glance at her and she’s looking at Kirsch, her mouth open. I look at him and he has the same dumb look on his face.

 

What?

 

“What?”

 

“Dude… you just swore!”

 

They both start poking me and I swat their hands away. I swear, these guys are such losers sometimes.

 

We start walking around the building trying to find a loose board because all of the doors are locked from the outside, so there’s no other way to get in. Finally, though, Kirsch falls over a board that’s sticking out, half unscrewed. “Thanks for that, Crust. Now let the master do her work.”

 

He rolls his eyes. “Stop calling me that!”

 

She laughs and so do I.

 

When we all met back at the end of 8th grade year, I introduced Kirsch to Carmilla because she was kind of… intimidating to say the least.

 

_“So… uh, hi?” I smiled nervously. Braces shining in the bright sunlight._

_She picked at the grass on the ground, gathering it in clumps and dropping it back down again before turning to me. “Fuck off, Pippi Longstocking.”_

_I stared at her for a second before reaching over and ripping the grass from her hands and throwing it on the ground behind her. “That’s rude.”_

_She stared at me for a second before turning it into a glare. “Do you not know what ‘fuck off’ means?”_

_I glared right back at her. “Yes, I do, and it’s rude to say that. I’m not going anywhere until you introduce yourself to me,” I said triumphantly. “I’m Laura.” I held out my hand and for a second I thought she was going to punch me, but she gave me a little nod, like she was impressed and shook my hand back._

_“Carmilla,” she said._

_I turned towards a tree behind us. “Okay, Kirsch you can come out now, she’s not that bad!”_

_I turned back to her and she gave me a weird look. “What did you just -”_

_Kirsch came over to us and held out his hand. “Hey… sorry for being so weird, I just.. we’re all new kids and you’re kind of intimidating. Anyways, I’m -”_

_“Crust, yeah yeah, I heard.”_

_I looked at him and he gave me a confused look. I turned back to Carmilla and she was genuinely serious. “Uh… his name’s **Kirsch**.”_

_She raised an eyebrow but took his hand anyway. “Whatever you say, cupcake.”_

“Okay seriously, how was I supposed to know you went by your last name?”

 

“LaFontaine does,” he points out and I shrug.

 

“He’s got you there.”

 

She rolls her eyes and lays on her back, sliding her legs through the window. And I can’t help but thinking that it was stupid to be doing this the summer before Junior year. We could get out release privileges taken away.

 

No one wants that.

 

But it was kinda too late to go back now. Carmilla was already inside and Kirsch was half way there. Except… what the heck? “Dude, what’re you doing?”

 

He looks at me and glares. “I’m stuck, asshole.”

 

I roll my eyes before crouching down and grabbing ahold of his shoulders. “Carm, grab his legs and pull on three.”

 

She mumbled something and I shrug. “Okay, one -”

 

_“Three!”_

 

And then Kirsch is disappearing through the window. “Ow,” he groans. I peek through the window. Carmilla’s standing up and trying to push him over.

 

“The fuck you mean ‘ow’? You landed on me!”

 

“Well _maybe_ if you would have went on the three count like Laura _said_ -”

 

I roll my eyes again before effortlessly sliding through the window and landing on the linoleum floor. “You guys gonna stop arguing any time soon?”

 

They look at me and I raise an eyebrow. “Sorry,” they mumble.

 

We look around the room, and really, there’s nothing here but empty cupboards, broken glass and crappy tables. “Come on.”

 

We walk out of the classroom and we’re facing a long, dark hallway. To the left is another long, slightly _less_ dark hallway. I crouch down, unzip my bag and pull out three flashlights, handing them to my friends before standing back up and putting my backpack on again.

 

This is creepy already, it doesn’t help that there’s this exit sign that’s casting a really scary red glare over the two entrance doors to the showers and…

 

Oh my god.

 

“Is that a backpack?” Kirsch whispers.

 

We look at each other and shake our heads. We back up slowly for a few feet before turning on our heels and bolting down the hallway and taking a sharp right. Which really wasn’t a good idea because the floor is super slippery for some reason and now I'm on the ground.

 

So are Kirsch and Carmilla.

 

Carmilla gets back up though, trying to pull both of us up. “Get up you idiots!”

 

So we do and we get to the end of a hallway and take a left into a small old kitchen room (?) and hide in a dark closet.

 

**_Fifteen minutes later…_ **

****

“Hey… do you think -”

 

Carmilla and I both shush him and continue trying to listen for any footsteps.

 

“Okay,” Carmilla began, peeking over her right shoulder, “do you guys want to leave?”

 

“Um, duh?” I whisper. “This is how all horror movies start, Carm. Not a good idea.”

 

Kirsch hums. “Have to agree with lil nerd over here… _but_ we’re already here so wouldn’t it kind of be a waste to just… I don’t know, leave now?”

 

Carmilla let go of my hand and I let go of Kirsch’s. As much as I hated the idea, I had to agree too. It really didn’t make sense to risk our future for another two years just to leave as soon as we got here. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Let’s just, get out of this closet?”

 

I couldn’t see her but I knew she was smirking at me. “You tryna tell us something, cupcake?”

 

I roll my eyes. “I came out to you guys the same time you guys came out to me so shut up.”

 

Kirsch opens the closet door and we file out, Carmilla first, me second and Kirsch last. We line up around the corner and Carmilla does some kind of sign thing with her hand and we start walking down the hallway again, staying as close to the wall as possible. “Dude, this is just like the time we got caught pretending to be spies the beginning of sophomore year,” Kirsch says. We stop for a moment and Carmilla glances back at him.

 

“Really dude?”

 

I chuckle and make a gun with my two hands. “For old time's sake?”

 

I look back at Kirsch and he’s doing the same and then we both look expectantly at Carmilla.

 

“You guys are fucking dorks,” she says before making her hands into a gun.

 

We glide along the wall for a few seconds before Carmilla stops and holds her hand above her left shoulder, signaling for us to stop. “What?” I ask.

 

She reaches her other hand around a small corner and jiggles a doorknob. The door opens and we file inside, shutting it tightly and latching it.

 

The classroom’s basically the same size as the one we were first in, but it had more cupboards and a sink. Kirsch dusts off a spot on the floor and sits down before rifling through his backpack and pulling out a bag of weed.

 

Great. Here we go again.

 

“Carm, where’d you even get the weed from?”

 

She shrugs, sits down and pulls me down with her. “Elsie,” she says. And then she smiles. “That girl is literally like the Queen of Drugs.”

 

I shrug because, yeah… it’s kind of true. I turn my head to the right to look at Kirsch who’s probably trying to find his lighter. “And where’d you get the alcohol?”

 

He shrugs. “My Mom.”

 

“You have the rolling papers right?”

 

I nod.

 

Don’t judge. My Uncle works at a smoke shop down on West 3rd Street. It’s pretty sketchy, but he’s pretty cool about giving me free things. Especially rolling papers because, apparently, people don’t roll joints as much as they used to and he has too many boxes of them to sell.

 

Not that any of us complain.

 

Carmilla opens the bottle of cookie flavored Smirnoff and I basically drool.

 

Honestly, drinking isn’t my favorite thing in world but cookies definitely are. So when she passes me the bottle a take a big gulp without hesitation.

 

“Jesus Christ, Laura,” Kirsch says, giving me a shocked expression. I shrug and hand the bottle back to Carmilla. Kirsch pulls out his phone and dials someone’s number.

 

“Uh… who are you calling?”

 

“Your brother.”

 

Carmilla rolls her eyes and I laugh because Kirsch has honestly had a crush on Will since the end of 8th grade.

 

Carmilla and Will were twins but holy crap, were they fraternal twins because they look nothing alike. But I can definitely see how they’re related. They act a lot alike at least ninety percent of the time.

 

When Kirsch gets off the phone, we stare at him. “Woah, what?”

 

“Just ask him out already.”

 

Carmilla laughs. “Yeah, seriously. You’re basically my brother anyway so I don’t see why it would hurt.”

 

Kirsch scoffs and finishes rolling the joint before putting the end in his mouth and lighting it.

 

“And hey, none of that ‘give me another hit’ crap. _It’s puff puff pass_ ,” I say, poking him in his left arm. He bats it away after his second hit and passes it to me.

 

I take a hit, hold it in for a few seconds and exhale.

 

And then I cough. “Oh, _shit_ ,” I manage to get out through gulping breaths.

 

Carmilla whistles as I pass her the joint. “You’re kind of hot when you swear, sweetheart.”

 

I make a face at her and reach for the bottle on the other side of her legs. I take another long gulp because holy crap is this stuff good.  

 

I’ve actually never drank and smoked at the same time before but… I should be fine, right?

 

...Right?

 

**_Fifteen minutes later…_ **

 

Oh.

 

_Oh._

 

I’m… not okay.

 

“Guys…”

 

Kirsch nudged my legs with his. “You okay, kiddo? Because last time we smoked you kind of wouldn’t stop singing _Year 3000_ by the Jonas Brothers.”

 

I smile and chuckle. “It’s such a good song though!” I look at Carmilla who’s looking at me with an amused expression. I grin. _“One day when I came home, at lunch time… I heard a funny noise…”_

“Oh god please no.”

 

I look at Kirsch expectantly who smiles. _“Went out to the backyard to find out, if it was one of those rowdy boys,”_ he sang. And I could tell he was trying not to die laughing.

 

_“Stood there with my neighbor called Peter, and a Flux Capacitor…”_

 

We both look at Carmilla who rolls her eyes, trying to hide a smile. “No way.”

 

“Carm _please?_ ”

 

She sighs, but then laughs and smiles and holy crap is she perfect. _“He told me he built a time machine, like one in a film I’ve seen…”_

_“Yeah, he said I’ve been to the year 3000. Not much has changed but they live underwater. And your great great great granddaughter, is doing fine. She’s doing fine,”_ we sang, laughing after the chorus was over.

 

“See how much fun that was!”

 

“Laura? Shut up, you’re fucked up right now,” Carm said, a smirk on her face. And then it hit me.

 

This is totally illegal, and dangerous, stupid and _totally_ something only delinquents would do... but I’m here with my _best friends._

Everything makes so much sense now. “Guys, what if we’re in the year 3000 right now? And… and we’re like the rebels who go and explore the abandoned parts of the cities?”

 

“Dude, then we’re actual spies!” Kirsch exclaims, standing up and holding out his hands. “Come on, we’re gonna go explore. That’s what we came here for, right?”

 

Carmilla and I took his hands and he pulled us up from the ground. “I literally hate you guys.”

 

I smile and tap her on the cheek. “The friendship bracelet on your wrist tells us otherwise,” I say smugly as she rolls her eyes.

 

“We are 16, not 5!”

 

I wave my hand at her and go to pick up my backpack and the bottle of vodka. I take another drink and laugh before Carmilla walks over and takes it away from me. “Carm - ”

 

“You’re too fucked up to be doing anymore tonight, okay? Right Kirsch?”

 

He looks up from his phone and nods. “Sorry, Laura… she’s right.”

 

I sigh and we pack everything up and walk back out into the hallway, guns in hand (haha see what I did there?) and crouch against the farthest wall. I look up out of the window and see…

 

Oh crap.

 

“Guys, it’s a cop,” I whisper. Kirsch and Carmilla swear under their breath and flip off their flashlights.

 

Kirsch’s phone rings. “Will? You have to get out of here there’s a cop here.”

 

He pulls his phone away from his ear slowly and looks back at us. “He says there’s cops everywhere.”

 

I let out a shaky breath. And Carmilla sighs. “Come on,” she whispers. And we run as fast as we can without slipping or having our backpacks fall off. We get to the first hallway and attach ourselves to the right wall where Kirsch gets on a table to look out one of the windows. “I don’t know what to do. How do we get out of this?”

 

A few seconds pass and Kirsch sighs. “Will says he’s going to try to distract them but he might not be able to, there’s way too many cops.”

 

Carmilla holds her hand out and Kirsch hands her his phone. “Will? Whatever you do, don’t get caught, okay? You still need to take Kirsch on a date.” She chuckles, I laugh and Kirsch rips the phone back out of her hand, stepping down from the table.

 

We walk right next to the wall and take a right into a space that has two small staircases on either side that lead to a room. We walk up the left one and crouch down in the corner.

 

_“You guys wanna check on the west side of the building?”_

 

Oh, great. I look at Carmilla and shake my head before we basically barrel over each other to get back into the main hallway. My vision’s a little blurry and I feel like I’m underwater.

 

This is really bad, but it can’t get worse, can it?

 

“Oh, fuck,” Kirsch whispers as the four windows on either side of us light up, light shining through and moving across the white wall.

 

I’m too messed up for this.

 

Eventually, the lights move to the left of us and we bolt down the dark hallway. We get to another t-section. The one to the left has lights on and a staircase, the one to the right is dark and cluttered.

 

We go right.

 

“Right here,” Kirsch says, ducking into a chemistry lab. There’s windows everywhere and laugh before they pull me back out of the room.

 

5 cops cars.

 

Just in the front of the school. “This is some Grand Theft Auto, shit, man,” Carm says, looking to her right towards all the boxes and cabinets in the rest of the dark hallway. “All we’re missing is some sketchy ass ski masks.”

 

I raise my hand. “I brought ski masks.”

 

Carmilla gives me a look and Kirsch smiles at me before turning around. “Dude… let’s hide in here.”

 

It was a bathroom.

 

Ew.

 

We could hide behind all the cluttered junk further down the hallway but, the main entrance provided too much of a view of us for the cops, so we settle for the dark, disgusting bathroom.

 

There were two stalls. We hid in the furthest one. Kirsch sat down on the toilet and Carm and I stood on either side of the toilet, scrunched against the wall.

 

Our backpacks were in the other stall, hung up on the hooks on the stall door.

 

I lean my head back against the cool painted metal and look at Carmilla. She looks back at me and gives me a sad smile. “I’m sorry,” she mouths. I nod.

 

“Me too,” I mouth back before closing my eyes.

 

**_Twenty minutes later…_ **

 

Guess where we still are?

 

Yep, the nasty, dark, bathroom stall. I really shouldn’t have done this. I mean, what kind of friend am I? I let my friends do something stupid and I went along with it like nothing was going to happen.

 

And when we get arrested they’re going to do a breathalyzer test and probably a drug test and my Dad’s going to kill me.

 

But forget my Dad. Carmilla’s Mom is going to skin her alive, and Kirsch’s Mom is going to bury him in the backyard.

 

I’m never going to see my best friends ever again.

 

I squeeze my eyes shut as tears slip from them. Which is fine because Carm reaches her hand up and brushes them away.

 

**_Twenty-five minutes later…_ **

 

_“Okay, there’s nothing down that way so I’m checking the other end.”_

 

I sigh and Carmilla lets go of my hand before leaning forward. “Get your ski masks,” she whispers. I nod and crouch down and eventually laying on the floor on my stomach, I glide under the stall wall dividing the two stalls and get into my backpack. I pull out two black ones and a deep pink one.

 

I slide back under the wall and lean back into my position I was in before, handing the black and dark pink one to my friends, and clutch the other black one in my hand. “Listen, whatever happens tonight, just know that I love you guys more than anything, and I’m sorry,” Carmilla says, not even bothering to whisper anymore.

 

Kirsch looks up at us and smiles. “I love you guys too, and I’m sorry.” And I can’t really see his face, but I know he’s crying because his voice is tight and it sounds like his throat is closed.

 

I let out a sigh and hold out my hands, each of them taking one while they joined hands themselves. “I love you guys, you know that. And I’m sorry, too.”

 

I’m crying hard, silent tears.

 

We squeeze each others hands and put on our masks. Kirsch laughs. “Might as well go out with a bang, huh?”

 

And then I can see the light of a bright, white flashlight bouncing off the walls and one voice. We walk out of the bathroom and hold our hands up. “We’re in here,” Kirsch calls out.

 

There’s heavy footsteps and then a cop standing in the doorway of the bathroom we his gun raised. “Get against the wall! Right now!”

 

We turn and walk up against the wall before he runs up and forcefully shoves Kirsch against the wall, his hands all over him. “Hey, what the fuck?”

 

He kicks Carmilla in the back of the leg and she drops to her knees.

 

Oh,  _Jesus Christ..._

 

I swing my arm in a tight swing and hit him in the throat. He falls to the ground and gasps for air, so I punch him in the throat again and Kirsch manages to nail him with a punch so hard, he blacks out.

 

Did we just…?

 

“Shit is he dead?”

 

I shake my head, run into the other stall and grab our bags, throwing them at my friends. There’s a few boards lying on the floor, so I take one and put it in the doorway, hoping to make it look like he tripped and fell. And then...

 

We run.

 

We end up in the other end of the hallway, the one with the lights and the staircase. We run up the staircase, as quietly as possible before reaching another dark-ish hallway. We jog along the wall, looking for another place to hide. “This is so bad, _fuck_.”

 

Carmilla’s never worried about anything, unless it’s food. But I have to agree.

 

We just assaulted a cop. _And ran._

 

I run a hand through my hair before looking to my right and finding a janitor’s closet. “Guys, wait.”

 

They stop, turn around, I open the door and they shrug, following me inside.

 

I can’t see shit, but I feel a chair and I honestly want to sit down right now, but we put it up against the door knob. Kirsch pulls out his flashlight and shines it around the room. There’s a little bit of cleaning supplies, a broom and a ladder. He shines it up to the ceiling and there’s a little square door. “Roof?” he asks.

 

“Worth a shot,” I say and we climb.

 

The door opens and we’re on the roof. Kirsch is the last one so he shuts the door and we all sigh. It’s one of those roofs with the high walls and tar covered floor.

 

**_3:21 am_ **

 

We’re all peeking over the edge of the roof wall to look down on the EMT’s rolling the cop on a  gurney into the ambulance.

 

_“It looks like he fell, or something. There was a board in the doorway that he probably didn’t see.”_

_“Well, we’re almost done here so uh… thank you.”_

 

We slide our backs down the roof’s wall and, the words were quiet but we sigh in relief.

 

We’ll be fine.

 

**_4:09 am_ **

 

The cops are gone and so is our bag of weed.

 

I laugh.

 

Carmilla and Kirsch are stress smokers and I was shaking so bad, I decided it would be a good idea to finish it off. “Guys… I’m so fucked up right now I feel like what just happened was a video game,” I say, pressing my face further into Carmilla’s neck.

 

They both laugh, and then I laugh and we laugh for what feels like forever.

 

“Do you guys think we’ll live to be seventeen?”

 

Kirsch ruffles my hair and I groan. “If we don’t get caught for sneaking out, or assaulting and running from the cops, then yeah. But if we do, we’re dead.”

 

Carmilla leans her head on Kirsch’s chest and I move my head to her lap. “Sixteen and pregnant? More like sixteen and criminal,” he says.

 

And at the moment, even though everything about it sucks, I love being sixteen because I’m never going to sixteen again, and neither will my friends. This is our sixteen year old legacy that’s not over because all I can see in the future is a distant seventeen. So far away that it feels like it’s never going to get any closer. But I know we’ll get there, we have to.

 

“Wow, cupcake… you should write that down.”

 

I open my eyes. “Did I say that out loud?”

 

Kirsch laughs. “Yeah, lil nerd. We need to smoke you up more often.”

 

I smile. It’s dopey and I smile wider. “I’m pretty messed up, I just wanna go home and sleep.”

 

And then, like freaking magic, (and maybe it is because I’m literally too fricked up right now to even tell the difference) we hear car tires rolling and crunching across the gravel. We all sit up and peek over the edge. “My truck!”

 

Kirsch panics whenever someone looks at his truck the wrong way… I can’t even imagine-

 

“Will?”

 

Huh?

 

I blink and squint my eyes. It is Will.

 

He’s standing there, leaning against the bed of Kirsch’s truck with what I’m pretty sure is a smile on his face. The Karnstein’s have really nice white teeth, what can I say? “You losers coming or what?”

 

I hear Carmilla and Kirsch sigh, so I do too because… holy crap, he’s a life saver.

 

It’s 4:38 in the morning before we all get back to my house. My Dad leaves for work at 4:30, anyway and Kirsch’s Mom and Carmilla and Will’s Mom leave for work around 5, so I invited them over. “So uh… you guys know my room isn’t big enough so..?”

 

“Basement,” they agree.

 

We walk down the carpeted stairs and into my basement, which is really nice by the way. My Dad and I spent months working on it.

 

We all stand there, exhausted looks on our faces before we plunge into a group hug. “You guys are the best thing to ever happen to me, you know that right?” I say.

 

And then they say a collective _‘we know’_.

 

We don’t even bother to get blankets or anything, we all just kind of collapse into a tangled heap on the ground.

 

Carmilla’s head is in my side, my foot is caught in between Kirsch and Carmilla’s legs and Will is half on top of me and it’s just a mess.

 

And I can’t help but think that I’ve been wanting to be seventeen, or eighteen or even twenty-one for a long time but what we did tonight was illegal, and stupid and dangerous and probably the most reckless thing we’ve ever done.

 

But it was _our sixteen._

 

We fall asleep with smiles on our faces.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write this for days now. Hope you liked it, or at least didn't hate it.


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